Veterans Day 2005

VETERANS DAY 2005 -- (Senate - November 10, 2005)

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Mr. DAYTON. Mr. President, I rise to thank the distinguished chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the ranking member, who are two of the finest public servants I have ever had the privilege of knowing, for their leadership of that committee on which I serve and for their leadership on this important legislation before the Senate, which I support. I also thank them for including two of my amendments in the bill, the first of which is a sense-of-the-Senate resolution, which I am proud to coauthor with Senator Murray of Washington and Senator Collins of Maine, that says the Department of Defense must honor its promise to pay reenlistment bonuses to members of the Army National Guard. I was told yesterday that the Pentagon has reversed its position and has now approved the National Guard's payment of those promised reenlistment bonuses.

My second amendment authorizes an additional $50 million for childcare for Active-Duty military families and an additional $10 million for family assistance centers. The committee bill already provided for increased funding for these two vital programs, and I thank the chairman and ranking member for agreeing to these further authorizations which parallel the increased funding that I added to the Senate's 2006 Defense appropriations bill.

Our military families are facing increased pressures as husbands and wives are deployed in faraway war zones and thus separated from their families for up to 18 months at a time. The Office of the Secretary of Defense has reported that some 38,000 children of Active-Duty families are being denied childcare in military facilities due to the lack of funding for the centers and for the spaces needed. This imposes an unfair additional hardship on these wonderful American families. The extended absence of a parent is compounded by the lack of available, reliable childcare. For the same reasons of extended absences, emotional and financial stresses, and the understandable need for support, the military family assistance centers are more important now than ever. They are especially valuable for the families of Reserve and Guard men and women whose wife or husband is called to active duty and then deployed in adjusting to extended absences and then readjusting to the spouses return or, in the worst case, to the spouse's not returning home alive, or returning home seriously wounded or maimed for life. When we talk about supporting our troops, which all of us truly want to do, two very important ways are through childcare and family assistance services.

I wanted to take this opportunity to address briefly a related area, one vital to our national security. Last week the Washington Post reported that the CIA is operating secret prisons in up to eight other countries, including one in a former Soviet gulag in eastern Europe. These are so-called ``black sites'' where reportedly the CIA's ``enhanced interrogation techniques,'' some of which are prohibited by U.N. convention or U.S. military law--in other words, torture--are being used against unidentified subjects for indefinite periods of time. They are reportedly being denied lawyers or any opportunity to defend themselves against whatever charges of wrongdoing have brought them there.

At the same time, the Vice President has reportedly given ``one of the most impassioned pitches he has ever delivered'' to Republican Senators at last week's caucus lunch opposing the McCain amendment, which passed the Senate by a vote of 90 to 9, that would prohibit the use of torture against detainees. The President has reportedly threatened to veto the entire 2006 Defense appropriations bill if it contains the McCain amendment. The Vice President was reportedly urging that the prohibition against torture be stricken, or at least an exception be given to the CIA.

Now we know why the President and the Vice President are so adamantly opposed to the Senate's ban on the use of torture or want an exemption for the CIA. It is because the CIA is operating secret prisons in other countries where torture is allegedly being used. Why else would they be against prohibiting torture, if they weren't doing it or intending to do it?

In response to the Post story, Republican congressional leaders sent a letter to the chairmen of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees requesting them to ``immediately initiate a joint investigation into the possible release of classified information to the media alleging that the United States Government may be detaining and interrogating terrorists at undisclosed locations abroad. As you know, if accurate, such an egregious disclosure could have long-term and far-reaching damaging and dangerous consequences, and would imperil our efforts to protect the American people and our homeland from terrorist attacks.''

Well, with all due respect, I say that the Republican leaders have the right idea but the wrong focus. There ought to be a congressional investigation, but it ought to be on the existence of those secret prisons, on who is being held there, why, for how long, and how are they being treated, whether torture is being used, and why these ``black sites'' are being hidden from Congress. I know my colleague, the distinguished Senator from Massachusetts, Mr. Kerry, has just proposed an amendment to this legislation that would require disclosure of these secret sites.

I ask unanimous consent to be added as a cosponsor of his amendment.